


Bag Full of Dreams

by Lackadaisy_scribbles



Category: Kortia (Visual Novel), Sweet Elite (Visual Novel)
Genre: Also tying in Papa Scholar's absence last chapter with...something haha, Going with the theory that the MCs of the two games are related, Not beta read but I did my best, Whumptober 2020, but not enough for me to tag them, i guess?, sorry this is oc centric but a few of the main 10 are mentioned in passing, this is my first time posting a fanfic in either fandom ahh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27195121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lackadaisy_scribbles/pseuds/Lackadaisy_scribbles
Summary: During the aftermath of FAXION, and a new budding friendship, scholarship student Veronica Stafford had thought she would be able to get back into the routine of her usual studies at the illustrious Arlington Academy. That is until she gets an unsettling phone call from her father stating that the one who helped her get there in the first place has disappeared.
Kudos: 3





	Bag Full of Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this fic is a reference to the Lotte Walda song "Bag Full of Dreams", which I listen to a lot when drawing my characters. It's quite a soothing song, and quite introspective. I think it fits my scholar Veronica a lot. Whoever reads this, I recommend you give it a listen!
> 
> I'm a little rusty in my creative writing, but I hope to get back into it a bit more!

She’d been sitting in her dorm room doing her math homework, her pencil scratching along her notebook in rhythmic movements. 

Despite everything, she afforded herself a small smile. 

102% on the math midterm. She beat out everyone, including Tadashi. 

Her success only inspired her to work even harder, if only to get a head-start on the final. No small wonder he’d be doing the same.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted at the sound of her phone buzzing, and she attempted to ignore it. It was probably just her friend’s group chat, which was always buzzing at night when Ellie and Tyler were most active. She successfully ignored it until at some point the sound faded and her father’s ringtone cut through her focus like a knife through butter. 

Her father rarely missed her calls unless something was serious. For him to call her after that was never a good sign. 

She snatched up her phone, unlocking it and answering the call. 

“Hi, dad!” She beamed, despite knowing he couldn’t see her. She was excited to tell him about everything that happened with FAXION. Where should she start with? Being a judge? Her 102% grade? Or maybe even her progress with Karolina-

“Hi, Ronnie.” Her father’s voice was warm like usual, but something seemed off. His tone was a little more clipped, and the slightest bit tense.

All thoughts of her recent events were wiped out. 

“Dad…? What’s wrong?” 

Her father sighed, and she realized that since the call started, she hadn’t heard the energetic barking of her sweet corgi, Chai, whose barking would fight for the attention of them whenever the phone rang. 

“Something didn’t happen to Chai, right?” He was a fairly young dog, only a few years old-

“What? Oh, don’t worry he’s fine. One of your friends from school took him out for a walk.”

Veronica stared at her phone with a dumbfounded expression. Why on earth would her dog be taken out for walks by one of her friends (really acquaintances) from her old school? Her dad always did it. What was going on?

“Veronica, to tell the truth, I’m currently in Vancouver. Your cousin is missing.”

———

She was in middle school at the time. It was a balmly midsummer evening as she stared at Arlington Academy’s website in both parts awe and admiration. 

She wanted to be like them, with their big dreams and ambition to help the world. However, in order to do so, she needed the grades. Arlington only accepted the best of the best out of their scholarship students, and while her grades were one of the highest in her school, she needed to be even better.

While math and politics were her strongest, her science grade was lackluster in her opinion. An 87% was nothing to sneeze at, but it was dragging her overall grade down, and it was certainly not Arlington material. She suddenly jumped up from her desk chair, walking by her puppy Chai, who squeaked at her from his doggy bed as she opened the door of her bedroom in order to peer around the loft. All the lights were off, including his room, so he must be downstairs. She descended quietly down the stairs into the kitchens.

Her dad’s restaurant was closed for the day, employees cleaning up after a day of work and in preparation for the day ahead. Her father was speaking to one of the line cooks, something about inventory.

“Hi!” She said breathlessly, tittering with excitement as both adults turned to look at her. “Dad, I need to borrow the phone.”

Her dad’s eyebrows shot up, his brown eyes curious as he regarded her restlessness. 

“Ronnie, you know you’re allowed to use the phone upstairs to call your friends.” 

“Yeah but I don’t want to call them, I want to call Emmet! He can help with science class! For Arlington!”

Her dad froze like a deer in headlights as soon as Arlington was mentioned.

“Wait Veronica, it’s way too late-“ 

For once she ignored him in favour of running back up the stairs into their loft in order to get to the telephone in their living room and dial the phone number of her aunt’s house. 

The dial tone rang for quite a while, but Veronica was persistent. When the phone went to voicemail, she’d hang up, dial again, and wait. 

She’d done this at least four times when someone finally picked up, and she nearly jumped with glee when her cousin answered the phone with his usual bored tone.

“Hi!” She greeted, unable to keep it in any longer. “I need you to help me with science!”

Her cousin Emmet was….difficult at best, frustrating at worst, and impossible to truly understand. She knew it was unlikely she’d successfully enlist his help, but she had to try. He was one of her only options left. 

“Why…?” He finally said, and she could hear the muffled music of one of his video games playing in the background. She could imagine his face scrunched in annoyance at being interrupted.

“I want to get into Arlington but my grades aren’t good enough yet. I only have a B+ and I need at least an A. I thought since your grades are so good in it….” She trailed off. 

He was quite brilliant when he put his mind to it. She remembered balking when overhearing her aunt and uncle talk about it once at a family gathering, one of the few where her aunt bothered to show up. A near 100% in science, but abysmal in everything else. Too bored with the other class content, he simply didn’t try. She didn’t get it. With such cleverness, why not use it to be the best you could be?

But it wasn’t her problem, she remembered, as she waited for her cousin’s reply. He sighed, and she knew his response before he even uttered it. 

“That sounds boring as hell,” He said dismissively, not caring at all about swearing to his little cousin. “I’ll pass-“

“Emmet _please_.” She said pleadingly, her voice wavering as her smile dropped and she blinked away tears. Knowing him, she had a limited window of time before he hung up. “I tried other tutors but I just don’t get it. I’m not good enough right now. Dad keeps trying to suggest other private schools but I want Arlington! I….I want to understand this stuff like you do.”

There was a pregnant pause on the other end, and she knew he was weighing the pros and cons of helping her. Despite the blood relation, he rarely did anything kind unless it somehow benefited him. The music from his video game faded out, before starting again as one of her last strings of hope wavered on the phone line. 

“Veronica.” Her cousin said quietly, a seriousness to his tone that she hadn’t heard before. “Why do you want to go to Arlington so badly?”

Why did she want to go to Arlington?

There were so many reasons. It was a great opportunity. To go to Arlington meant your future was practically assured. She could go to other private schools and still get a good job, but it wasn’t like her to settle. She always wanted to be the best in everything she set her mind to. She wanted to help people, to make their days brighter. She wanted to help others, like so many Arlington alumni changed the world for the better. 

She wanted to help repay her father, her single father who raised her all by himself so that he could have the money he deserved to be comfortable. They weren’t poor now, but she, along with her cousins, had been raised with a frugality honed by their deceased grandparent’s experiences in poverty. That never really leaves you, and her father always gave her what she wanted, despite all of that. 

There was also the other reason.

To not feel so alone. 

In her ambition, she dismissed opportunities with her classmates in the pursuit of her studies. While some of them tried, they didn’t really get it. They didn’t truly understand why she spent her days in the library pouring over books of things she didn’t really care for. They didn’t understand why she passed on invitations of sleepovers so she could study for tests that would take place years into the future. So eventually, the invitations stopped arriving. 

But would he understand that? He often shut down at the mere thought of discussing emotions. He wasn’t the type to disclose his own feelings, and he certainly wouldn’t care for the hidden reason behind her own.

However, for some reason, she had the instinct that she should.

The chirpy tune of that video game soundtrack was still softly playing, and with great surprise, she realized he hadn’t hung up yet despite her long pause, still waiting for an answer.

“I don’t want to be alone anymore.” She said honestly, shaking herself out of her introspection in order to finally answer him. “I think…I think the people there are more like me. Some people at school here have tried, but…they don’t really understand.” 

He didn’t answer immediately, but she could hear him sigh. He sounded somewhat resigned, but at least it wasn’t a dismissive scoff. 

“You do realize that this is a very big decision.” He said simply, though there was a brittle edge to his voice that wasn’t there before. “You could just make friends at your own school. You haven’t heard some of the stories about Arlington-“

“You sound like my dad.” She interjected, despite herself.

She was shocked once again when he didn’t angrily retort or hang up in retaliation for cutting him off. He was full of surprises that day. Instead, he fell into silence, and she could only guess what he was thinking. She waited, wondering if her dreams would become that much more harder to achieve, or would he extend that olive branch she’d been waiting years for from him. 

“I’ll help you,” He finally said, and her heart soared. “On one condition.”

“What is it?” She said gleefully. 

“That once you’re there, you don’t turn out like me.” He said with finality and hung up the phone.

———

She was shaken out of her thoughts by her present phone call, where she could hear a crying woman in the background, and with a start, she realized it was her aunt as her dad gently called her by her full name. 

“Dad what do you mean he’s missing?“

“He hasn’t been seen for nearly a week. His roommates didn’t report it until recently. Something about them thinking it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him. Apparently, he rarely came out of his room.” Her dad sighed. 

She stared blankly at one of the calendars on her dorm wall, the snail calendar that her unruly cousin got her last year for Christmas. 

_“I saw this and it reminded me of you. Cause you’re both slimy goobers.”_ He had said as she unwrapped it, with a smirk on his face at her annoyed glower. She’d smacked him upside the head for that comment, and both got into trouble for fighting. She still brought it with her anyway, because, despite his rude commentary, he still knew she would like the little fun facts on each page.

“You waited until now to tell me?” She said, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice. 

“Veronica,” He said her name placatingly, “We just recently learned about it ourselves. We didn’t want to worry you, we know you’re very busy studying. The police are handling it. Now, how about you tell me all about what’s been going on at school. I know you called me a week ago, and I’m sorry I missed it.”

The change in topic was a little jarring, but she knew from his sincere tone that it was only his way of trying to soothe the growing pit in her stomach.

So she described the last few weeks if only to distract both her and her father from what was now truly on their minds. Her new school had offered her all sorts of opportunities, and best of all, new friendships. 

She could only hope that wherever _he_ was, he was able to do the same. 


End file.
